Innovative Energy Harvesting Solutions for Cyber-Secured Green Buildings

Innovative Energy Harvesting Solutions for Cyber-Secured Green Buildings, PI: Nader Shehata, Funder: UK Embassy in Kuwait, Awarded Amount: 298,000 £, Start: October 2022, End: March 2025  

Funder: UK Embassy in Kuwait Awarded Amount: 298,000 £ PI: Dr. Nader Shehata   Start: October 2022 End: March 2025 Status: On going   Research Theme: Nanotechnology and Renewable Energies   Impact (SDG): Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure (SDG 9), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).   Collaborators: Edinburgh Napier University (UK), Alpha Solar Tech (Australia), and Alexandria University (Egypt)

Description:

Currently, Kuwait ultimately needs to extend the area of green buildings for better sustainable environment. Therefore, this project supports the current ambitious vision of Kuwait 2035 through moving toward green buildings and renewable energy harvesting. Precisely, our proposed project aims to develop an efficient in-door energy harvesting and zero-net energy consumption green buildings capturing energy from acoustic signals, footstep, and flexible solar panels. The plan includes both synthesis and characterization of piezoelectric nanofiber mats according to different mechanical/acoustic excitations. Subsequently, such mats will be embedded with electric setups within carpets and curtains. Besides, such piezo system will be aligned with commercial flexible solar panels to coordinate the reception of harvested energy from multiple renewable resources inside the buildings. Then, a scenario of user-centric and secure dashboard platform along with its cyber-security is presented for completely automated and trustworthy green building. All the outputs aim to achieve the main project’s aim through offering innovative automated and secured solutions for zero-net energy building. This project contributes to developing more features of the current initiated effort of green-building concept in Kuwait, generating fundamental knowledge that will be ripe for exploitation in a range of novel technological areas regarding sustainability and security. 

Outcome publications:

1.    R. Nair, A. El-kadery, A. M. Khalil, M. I. El-kaliuoby, I. Kandas, A. Jain, N. Omran, M. Gamal, S. Noman, G. Magdy, K. Maree, A. M. El-Khatib, A. Hassanin, I. Shyha, S. Garadat, A. Al-Dubai, M. Trabelsi, B. Al Othman, N. Shehata, Stretchable electrospun PVDF/TPU nanofibers membranes: Acoustic signals detectors, MRS Energy & Sustainability, 2024, 11, 659–668.
2.    R. Nair, J. Mahdi, O. Amjad, K. Maree, A. Jain, A. Al-Dubai, S. Jaradat, Islam Shyha, Mohamed Trabelsi, Basil Alothamn, and N. Shehata, Parametric Study on PVDF Electrospun Nanofibers: Optical Characteristics, Piezoelectric Analysis and Correlated Applications, Journal of Electronic Materials, 2024,  53, 4155–4172.
3.    R. Nair, B. Tripathi, A. Jain, and N. Shehata, Vibrational energy harvesting and tactile sensing applications based on PVDF-TPU piezoelectric nanofibers, Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 2024, 35, 857.
4.    N. Shehata, K. Maree, R. Nair, M. Trabelsi, Analysis of Post-treatment Heating of Stretchable Piezoelectric Electrospun Nanofibers, 8th International Conference on Materials Sciences and Nanomaterials, Edinburgh, UK, July 2024.
5.    R. Nair, A. Jain, N. Shehata, Highly Transparent Piezoelectric PVDF Electrospun Membrane, 7th International Conference on Materials Sciences and Nanomaterials, Cambridge, UK, July 2023.